The Journey Home
by Unturned
Summary: When the Shredder looks for another test subject for the brain worm, Leo and his family are set on a long journey home.


Chapter One: The Loss

In a steel gray room cast in shadows, a large illuminated fish tank stood in the center with strange, elongated creatures swimming about the insides. Light streamed from the tank, lighting up the silhouettes of two dissimilar figures.

The Shredder glared down at the squirming alien worms in the tank before him. "Is it finished?" The room echoed with his voice, making the mutant beside him flinch.

"Yeszz, Master," Stockman replied, tongue darting out briefly in nervousness. "The effectssz sszhould be much more ssztable now; your daughter sszeems to respond well to the added improvementsszz as well. They are ready for the nexsst sstep in our … _your_ project."

The man's single good eye narrowed. "Good." He turned and walked away from the frightened scientist. "See it is done."

* * *

Rahzar glanced with disdain at his three comrades. Though Xever could be useful – occasionally – Rocksteady and Bebop were nothing short of walking disasters. They were good for intimidation, and then only for the laymen and other gangs. The mutants cropping up in New York were frightening enough, but the thought that they were in Shredder's employ seemed to make most people depart with their stubbornness only too quickly.

Stockfly buzzed arrogantly at them, and Rahzar itched to put him in his place. "I find myszzelf in need of a turtle specimen, and you four clods will zzsupply it." The flyman's revolting mandibles clacked as he spoke and Rahzar was almost certain that the creature was laughing at them.

"vhy should ve do zat for you? You are, as zey say, a small fly?" the rhinoman beside him said, and Rahzar reevaluated his earlier thoughts; he liked him.

"Ooh, snap!" the funny russian's not-so-funny partner exclaimed. "That be smallfry, dude, but that's too precious to correct! Hi-ya!"

Stockfly had long since lost most of the ability to express emotions on his face, but Rahzar would swear that his strange full body twitches translated to a smirk.

"Ah, bzzz-but I have orderszz from Shredder himself; we need a turtle for my exzzzperimentszz."

Rahzar decided not to ask which experiments he was referring to – he really didn't want to know. "Why all four of us?" he asked instead.

"Becauszze I need to be szzure that at least one of you worthlesszz meatbags bring back a specimen." The fly told them exultantly.

The four mutants looked to each other. They didn't doubt that they could hold their own against the turtles, especially with four of them, but fighting the Hamato clan was always unpredictable, at best. There was no guarantee that they could bring back a turtle, let alone alive, without some kind of advantage.

Knowing that the fly and the Shredder wouldn't care to hear that, he turned back to Stockfly with resignation. "Is there any turtle in particular that we should get for you?"

Before the flyman could answer, a voice floated out of the shadows. "There is, in fact." a pair of green eyes stared unnervingly at them. "And I will help you catch him."

* * *

It had started out as the regular old patrol; beat up some Dragons, get Mikey unstuck from another drainage pipe, listen to Fearless' ramble on about proper topside behavior and the ninja way – the usual.

Then Rahzar dropped onto the roof-top in front of them from shell knows where, like a particularly hideous angel, with Rocksteady and Bebop in tow, and suddenly the night's entertainment didn't look so bleak. Leo yelled something about falling back, but Raph found himself grinning expectantly. _Finally, some action!_ He more felt than saw his brothers take up the standard defensive positions around him.

"Yo, Rahzar, where's your friend?" Raph yelled, "We don't usually see you without your fish stick around!"

A dark chuckle left the wolf mutant. "He's on vacation. I have a new partner in the meantime: I believe you've met?" He stepped aside and from the shadows of a ventilation-shaft a familiar figure stepped out with a smirk on her face.

Raph felt his elder brother stiffen behind him before calling out, "Karai!" and he rolled his eyes. _Here we go again_.

Karai's acid green eyes narrowed in amusement. "It's been a while, Leonardo. How have you been?" she teased, as though they were old acquaintances meeting out of coincidence.

His brother sounded like he was in pain. "Too long. Karai, you have to come back to your senses!" Raphael groaned internally. Leo was going to be a pain the rest of the week after this.

Karai held her chin and struck a thoughtful pose. "That sounds like an interesting proposition." In a smooth motion, she pulled out her sword and pointed it challengingly at Leo. "Why don't you tell me more about it?" She turned and ran to the edge of the roof. For a moment Raph though she was making a run for it, and he felt his muscles tighten in preparation to chase her, but she only made an impressive flip onto the next rooftop before assuming her battle stance again. Clearly, she just wanted more space for her tricks.

Leo was already running towards her, not even bothering to order his brothers to engage the other three foot-clowns. Typical Leo, when Karai was involved, but then again; there wasn't many more options for them to take.

"You're going down!" He was on Rahzar with Mikey yipping behind him before Donnie had even finished stammering after Leo.

* * *

Even as Leo landed on the rooftop, his eyes never left the armor-clad woman smirking at him. His grip on his katana tightened as he addressed her. "Karai, come back with us. Whatever the Shredder has forced you to do, whatever he made you believe - you can stop!"

"On the contrary, Leonardo," her smirk made her look like a self-satisfied cat. "None of my father's orders are against my will, as you will soon learn."

He frowned at her, his grip on his weapons slackened as a knot of unease formed in his stomach. Something was off about her – her behaviour, the way she isolated him from his brother; he'd thought that she wanted to talk to him, but if that wasn't it, then… "What do you mea-" he tried to say, but he never finished. Pain erupted from the back of his head, and he stumbled, turning to swing his katana sloppily at the grinning Xever standing behind him, barely visible behind the black spots in his vision.

"Nothing as distracting as a pretty face, huh, turtle?" were the last words he heard before he was claimed by the darkness creeping into his vision.

* * *

Raph parried Rahzar's claws and smirked at him. "Not doing too well there, dogbreath! How were you even hoping to fight us, when _Mikey_ can outdo you tactic wise?"

"Hey!" Mikey exclaimed. Then he glanced upwards, thoughtfully, for a moment, before grinning again. "Nevermind!" He backflipped over Rocksteady, who'd tried to take advantage of his distraction. _Tough luck there, rhinoman; Mikey_ is _a living distraction._ As the large mutant stumbled past him, Mikey delivered a solid kick to his cranium, before using the momentum to tackle Bebop. As the pig was stumbling, Donnie's staff shot out to push him back further with a painful thrust.

Rahzar let out a hoarse laugh. "We aren't here to _fight_ you, turtle."

Raph narrowed his eyes. "Could've fooled me. What are ya here for then?" he spat, suspicion clear in his tone, though he tried to hide it.

Bebop suddenly piped up from where he was shooting light-bolts at Donnie. "Goal accomplished, man! We got it!" Raph noticed his hand coming away from a communication tool at his ear, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Rahzar's grin took on another level of creepy. "We're just a distraction… see you, turtles." With that, all three of their opponents threw something that released a foul-smelling smoke and by the time it had cleared, the turtles had coughed up half their lungs and the other mutants were gone.

"Dude, they totally ripped that trick from us! That's plagasm!" Mikey whined.

"Plagiarism, Mikey," Donnie corrected him tiredly. "any ideas what they were after?"

Raph frowned. "No, but it seems they got it. What do you think, Leo… Leo?" his head whipped around, trying to locate their blue banded leader, before remembering that Karai had led him off somewhere.

Mikey looked plussed. "Hey, where did Leo go? Did he follow Karai?"

Suddenly, the pieces came together in a horrible picture in Raph's head, and his eyes widened. ' _We're just the distraction'…?_ _No way._ "Donnie, we've gotta find fearless, right now." His stomach was tightening in knots, though he liked to think he hid it well.

He didn't have to explain his fear to his brainiac brother. Donnie adopted a concerned expression. "You think they were after Leo? Why?"

"I dunno, Donnie, so why don't we find them and ask?!" He growled. He hesitated before jumping onto the other roof that Karai had lured Leo onto and tried to picture where they might have gone. _Shell, how could I have let him just run off like that? I_ know _how empty-headed he gets when she's involved._

"I'll try calling him," Donnie's voice said from behind him.

While his little brother fiddled with his tech, Raph scanned the rooftops for tracks and turtles, but gritted his teeth in frustration. it was hopeless; There was no way they could trace Leo and Karai, not when the whole thing had been a set-up. Unfortunately, he suspected that he already knew where the snake-face had taken Leo to.

Donnie and Mikey joined him. "Leo's not picking up, dude." The latter informed him.

Raph snarled. "We know where they're going. Shredder won't know what hit him!"

A hand on his bicep held him back. "That won't be necessary," Donnie assured him. "I just turned on the tracker on his T-phone." He grinned crookedly. "The signal is moving, so they probably haven't found it yet."

Raph ripped the T-phone out of his brother's hands. "Unless they ditched it on a car," he growled just to contrary, but felt his hopes rise despite himself.

With the T-phone clutched in his hand, he led his brothers across the rooftops, the blinking dot on the screen leading them to a road a few alleys away from the site of their battle. Four shapes moved silently through the darkness towards an open van, but no amount of stealth could hide the green tinge of his brother's skin.

Raph didn't stop to see if Donnie and Mikey were still behind him before launching himself at the four shadows. A spread-kick knocked back fishface and the rhinoman and made them lose their grip on his older brother. He hid a wince as Leo fell to the ground; he deserved it, really, for getting them all into this situation.

"You're not getting rid of us that easily!" He growled at Rahzar. He took up a stance in front of his downed leader and didn't need to look to know that Mikey and Donnie had done the same. The air was tense as the five foot-clods surrounded them.

"You should have stayed out of this, Raphael," Karai's face was shadowed by the light from the streetlamps behind her, but he could still imagine her smirk.

Five against three, with a ninja out of commission? Yeah, this wasn't looking good. He brought back his foot as quietly as he could, and gave Leo a good kick. Either it woke Leo up, or it was punishment for getting them into this in the first place.

Fortunately, it turned out to be the first case. A low groan reached his ears, and the form behind him moved sluggishly. He stepped down on an arm, hard, and smiled at the answering gasp. "Wha- Raph?"

"Nice to see you awake, sleeping beauty. Wanna lend us a hand with this?"

Seeing their advantage slipping away, Karai narrowed her eyes. "Get them." Barely after the words were out of her mouth, she jumped at Raph, her tanto inches from his face as it met the blade of his sai. He twisted his weapon, hoping to wrench hers away, but the short-sword was not as easily controlled as his brother's katana. He swung his other sai at her, but she slipped her blade from his and fell back, leaving the handle of his other weapon to glide through the air above her.

He used the short reprieve to sneak a look at his brothers. Donnatello was doing a good job of keeping away fishface and the disco pig, smacking the former when he got too close, and rapidly spinning the staff the avoid the latter's lasers. Mikey was somehow running in circles around Rahzar and the Rhino. They wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, but they didn't have to; they did a good job functioning as infuriating distractions (especially Mikey), which was exactly what their leader needed to get his shell in order.

Karai sent a flurry of kunai at him, but he parried them easily; too easily. He realized that she was worried she'd hit Leo. _So, they need him alive that badly, huh?_ Somehow, he liked that thought even less.

He tried to ignore the cacophony of his little brother's screams, and the pig's high-pitched squeals as he eyed the kunoichi. "What ya' want Leo for, anyhow? Dontcha' have enough freaks back home already?"

Karai smiled that psycho-smile of hers, and Raph would never understand why it didn't send Leo screaming at first sight. "Why don't you let us go, so you can find out?" She circled slowly around him, clearly trying to get into a better position to knock Leo out again.

He scoffed and stabbed at her, fully knowing that she'd flip out of the way. "What, and never see him again?"

"Oh, you'd see him again," Her voice was nearly a purr, and if Raph hadn't already known she was a snake and not a cat, he'd have sworn that it was. Her eerie reptile eyes flickered to something behind him, and she frowned. "but I suppose we'll have to reschedule this little rendezvous."

The sound of air against steel made Raph smirk at her. He fell back, and felt the reassuring pressure of his brothers' shells against his own. A quick glance showed Rahzar backing off with a shallow cut along his arm. The red glint of a katana told him that the skeletal mutant had apparently gotten a little too close to their little brother for Leo's liking. Said turtle was sending the foot ninja warning looks, despite his still woozy expression. This was clearly not the time to take on these freaks, not with Fearless so out of sorts. Pity.

"What now, guys?" Donnie asked, as he delivered a rap on Xever's ugly scaly head.

The following silence made Raph glance at Leo, only to find the idiot staring at Karai with the expression of a kicked puppy. He scowled, and the other turtle's eyes flitted to him briefly before his face set in determination.

"… Mikey, get us out of here." He ordered. The five Foot moved to intercept, but they were already too late.

"Righty-o!" The blue-eyed turtle sang as he dropped the smoke-bombs.

It was still difficult to get out of their shells out of dodge unnoticed, when they were surrounded by five ninja that were too wise to their tricks already, but they managed, somehow. Raph suspected that Karai hadn't tried too hard to catch them; smart move, if she wanted to be sure that their target didn't accidentally get more injured.

They found the closest manhole and disappeared back into the sewers. And that should really have been the end of it. Except Leo was an absolute _shell for brains_ when it came to Karai.

* * *

"What do you mean, you want to go to Shredder's lair?!"

Leo shook off the urge to cover his head against Raph's yells, and tried to maintain a calm expression. He was only partially successful. "Donnie isn't getting anywhere with his research as it is. We _need_ that brainworm!"

"The Shredder sends four mutants and his psycho daughter after you – _you_ specifically! – and your reaction is _what?_ 'Let's storm their HQ and make it easier for them'? Are you that desperate to be turtle soup?!" He could almost feel the steam coming out of Raph's ears at this point. Master Splinter had once told him that his brother's aura was like an open flame, and Leo was inclined to believe him.

He felt his own temper rising. "We have to do something!"  
"No! Absolutely no!"

"You're the one that refused to fall back in the first place! And you always want to pummel Shredder, what's so different now?!"

" _You're_ what's different, that's what!" Raph shouted back, spit flying in his rage.

The sound of a cane tapping the floor made them both swallow and turn to their sensei.

"Raphael is right, Leonardo." The older mutant said softly, making his eldest frown. "Saki's orders to capture you are concerning, and you need to stay low until we know more, or the Shredder turns his sights on someone else."

Leo frowned. "If he really wants one of us that badly, he isn't going to just give up," He reasoned. He hesitated, and then continued more softly. "You know that better than anyone, sensei," he tried to keep it from sounding like an accusation, but he knew his father would blame himself for bringing the Shredder's eyes on them in the first place anyway. "I'm not going to just stay down here, and hope he forgets about me. I- _we've_ been through worse." He looked to his two youngest siblings for affirmation.

Donnie shrugged carefully. "I guess that's true. He's been trying to kill us since day one, I don't see how this is any different."

"Yeah, it's just the same old deal!" Mikey agreed, before hiding behind Donnie at the look Raph was sending him.

"He hasn't targeted any of us directly before!" He insisted, looking to their sensei for backup.

Leo scoffed. "What, the coma didn't count?"

He immediately regretted correcting him when Raph's face turned thunderous, as he practically screamed in his face. "And – once again, I might add – he goes for you! Are you really going to make it even easier for him to try and kill you this time around?!"

Leo frowned, but couldn't think of a rebuttal; his run-in with Shredder during the invasion had shaken him, but he often underestimated how much it scared his brothers.

Sensei stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I cannot say what Saki is thinking… but for now, I believe it is best that you stay in the lair."

"But sensei-!" he started.

"No buts!" his sensei cut him off. Leo took a breath and fell back, recognizing that tone of voice. "You – _none of you –_ are leaving the lair."

"What?!" Mikey squawked, "For how long? What about pizza, dude?!"

"If you need anything, have Miss O'Neill or Mr. Jones bring it to you. For now, we are staying put." He gave Leo a meaningful look, and the eldest turtle sulked.

As their sensei turned for his rooms, Leo stalked off to the dojo, hoping for some time to cool down and think things through. _There_ has _to be a way to get that brainworm, so Donnie can cure Karai!_ _Sensei is too careful to let us go, but if there's no other way to help her, then-_

"Hey, shell-for-brains," a brusque voice tore him out of his musings. Raph had followed him to the dojo, and was leaning against the doorway with a knowing look in his eyes. "Let it go, dude. We'll find some other way."

Leo felt his temper – or was it fear? – rise again, but kept himself in check. _I am going to have to meditate sometime today_ , he promised himself. "There isn't. If there was, Donnie would have told us." He knew that the look he sent Raph was hard as flint. "We can't just keep waiting for things to work out, or they never will." He gritted his teeth and eyed a training dummy. "We've waited too long already."

"Look, I can't pretend to understand your weird thing with Karai-"

"No, you've always hated her!" He shot back, slamming his fist into the dummy. "Even when we found out that she's sensei's daughter!"

Raph's face morphed with a familiar rage. "She's been raised by the Shredder all this time! That doesn't just go away, even if she did leave him!"

Leo flinched. "What if it was me, Raph? Or Donnie, or Mikey?" He said defensively.

"But it's _not_ you!" he roared back. "We're brothers! Karai is just- Karai! She's the enemy!"

Leo felt his eyes go hard again. "…Don't let sensei hear you say that."

His brother looked away, but he didn't seem to regret his words. They stood in silence for a moment, and Leo wondered if he should say something; but, in the end, there wasn't anything to say. He left the gym, passing his brother on the way out. As he made his way to his rooms, he could Raph taking his anger out on the dummies.

* * *

The air was still when he snuck downstairs late that night, only an hour or so before sunrise. It felt unnatural for the lair to be this silent; it was usually so full of noise from any of his brothers, and even his sensei. Now, though, the silence suited him fine; it meant that his family were too deep asleep to notice him slipping off.

He hesitated on the turnstiles, and glanced back at the darkened lair, but there was really nothing for it. He slipped over the barrier and made his way towards the surface.

Leaving without them felt wrong, and perhaps he should have left a note… but if they'd caught him, sensei would probably just ground him and set Raph to guard him at night. Why his brother decided that now was the best moment to suddenly not want to fight at the slightest provocation was beyond him.

He'd considered bringing Donnie and Mikey… but he knew the former wouldn't be comfortable with leaving without Raph's or sensei's knowledge, and the latter wasn't the best stealth-ninja. No, it was best if he handled this alone.

He made his way to the imposing structure of the Foot clan's seat in New York, and checked out the perimeter from an opposing roof-top.

There were no foot guards at the gate; perhaps they were out looking for him in force – with the increased number of Shredder's goons running around, would it only be a matter of time before they simply stumbled on the lair? The thought strengthened his resolve; he _had_ to help Donnie find a cure and render Shredder's mind control ineffective, not just for Karai's sake, but for the rest of his family as well.

Sneaking past the darkened gate, he slipped through a basement entrance - past the oddly medieval-dungeon design of the basement, so at odds with the upper levels - and into the interior foot HQ,

He snuck his way through the dark hallways, moving through air vents and servants' entrances when he could, but the place seemed entirely abandoned. Though he realized that it was odd – and that his gut was already twisting with the ominous foreboding of _this is wrong_ – he couldn't ignore that the missing Foot made for an undeniable opportunity to finally get his green hands on one of those worms. Or, preferably, in a bag. Those things are gross.

The low hissing of a kunai caught his hearing, and he stepped away from its path. Slipping into a defensive posture with the ease of years of practice and experience, he surveyed the room, only to feel his stomach drop to his feet.

The rafters, the shadows, the doorways – dozens of Foot-Bots were streaming forth, having already blocked his way in. with a soft curse, he dodged another kunai, and used the movement to kick a Foot-Bot back. He glanced behind him and allowed himself a moment to grimace. With the Foot-Bots making backtracking impossible, he would have to move further into the building and hope that he came across an exit, before the mobbed him. Bringing back a brain worm – there was no way he'd be able to. As much as he hated letting Raph have the last word, this outing had turned out to be a terrible idea.

He turned on his heel to sprint through the nearest doorway, bots hot on his heels, the sound of gears and oiled metal echoing throughout the building. Angling his body to build speed, he ran past several open doorways, trying to find a way back downstairs, but that seemed to be the origin of the bots, and he had to back up or sloppily defend himself numerous times; weak as they were, even ants can overcome a stronger enemy when in numbers.

His mad dash came to an end when he entered the all too familiar throne room. The sides of the room were lined with pools, underwater lights illuminating the walkway to a heavy stone throne. Wall-to-ceiling skylights covered the room, letting in the light of the stars and the light-pollution of the city below. His heels skidded to an audible stop as his head whipped from side to side, looking for an alternate exit from the ominous room; but he knew all too well, that unless he threw himself through the skylight, there was only one exit – the one through which the Foot-Bots were now spilling.

He grit his teeth as the bots streamed out of the doorway, a veritable wave of mechanical ninja and shuriken coming at him. Faced with the overwhelming numbers, he took a page from his hot-tempered brother's book, and let his ninja training take over.

The fight became a blue of limbs jabbing and punching him, his own swords a constant gray metallic streak across his vison as he sliced weak points and knocked down bots with his swords' pummels. Distantly, he was aware that his body was littered with wounds, a particularly unhelpful one oozing blood into his eyes, forcing him to rely more on his instincts and hearing when swinging his katana.

Suddenly, the attacks stilled, and the bots withdrew slowly, parting to the sides of the room and clearing the way to the throne dais - upon which stood the Shredder, arms crossed over his chest as the very picture of self-assuredness.

Leo stood where he was, slumped and panting from the fight – a fight that was clearly meant to tire him out before the Foot leader struck the last blow. Even as dread filled him, he couldn't help remembering his brother's words. Raph was right; he really _was_ a fool. A sour taste filled his mouth, and he grit his teeth. He'd been expected.

This was an ambush.

"Turtle," the Shredder stepped down from the dais, room eerily quiet except for his voice. "I have been expecting you. Though, I expected your brothers as well." The man walked towards him, his long strides spanning the distance between them all too soon. "I don't know why you left them behind…" a flick of his wrists made blades unsheathe from his gauntlet, and Leo had to fight not to flinch, memories from another fight resurfacing. "…but it suits me fine."

His voice echoing in the quiet room, Foot-bots uncharacteristically quiet.

Leo felt anger and indignation rise inside him, and he welcomed the chance to hide from his fear. "Why did you send your goons to get me, Shredder?!" He brandished his swords in front of him "What do you want from me?!"

"From you? Very little." The man started pacing around him, and Leo followed him warily, not wanting to play into his hands, but also well aware that showing his back to the family's nemesis was beyond unwise. "What I want… is to kill Hamato Yoshi no; I want to _crush_ him." The man stopped in front of the only exit, and Leo realized that had been his goal from the start. "… and that's where _you_ come in, turtle." A mad glee entered his one remaining eye. "Yoshi's own personal Achilles' heel. His most valued student."

At the implications of those words, Leo growled in disbelief. "If you think I'll help you hurt my family-!"

"Ah, but you wouldn't have a choice – or rather, you already made it, by coming here." "The last choice of your life – one that will cost Yoshi _everything_."

"No! You'll have to go through me before I let you hurt them!" He threw himself at the armored man, pushing everything he had into his legs, arm swinging in a large arc, as he tried to aim for a weak point in the metal covering Shredder's body.

The man simply sidestepped, derailing the path of his katana with his bladed gauntlet. With the energy from his swing, his arm was forced up above his head, sword clanging to the floor and exposing his soft, undefended stomach. Before his tired muscles could react, the man struck first with his other gauntlet, slicing three long, painful slashes into his side. Leo gasped and stumbled back, empty hand pushing against the oozing wound. Clutching his last katana, he struggled to swing the blade at Shredder again, but the man easily dodged it and delivered a kick to his stomach that sent him rolling across the hard stone floor.

"You fear so much."

Leo tried to break his fall, but the stabbing pain from his injury stole his breath, and he fell to the floor with a strangled cry, losing his grip on his katana, the metal rolling out of his reach, even as he stretched an arm out for it.

Shredder's footsteps echoed in the dark room as he calmly circled him till he came to a stop in front of the dropped sword. Slowly crouching, he picked up the blade, as Leo watched him, still curled on the floor in pain. His eyes followed his blade as the man slowly came to a stand again, katana clutched in the tight grasp of his metal gauntlet. That single eye pierced him

"You fear losing your brothers."

He paced around Leo, towering over him as the downed turtle tried to push himself to his feet.

"You fear disappointing you master." The distaste in his voice was clear.

He came to a stop in front of him. "You fear _me_." Leo wanted to protest, but the words shriveled in his throat, and he settled for holding his wounded side. The Shredder lifted the gauntlet holding Leo's blade. He clenched his fist, and with a horrible sound of crushing, splintering metal, the katana shattered.

For a second, time seemed to slow down as the glinting pieces fell to the floor, Leo's eyes following their descent in shock. Then his head was yanked back, and he looked away from his broken sword to find that the Shredder had crouched next to him, and grabbed the tails of his bandana in a tight grip. Weak, injured, and faced with a Shredder that was much too close, Leo gasped and tried to squirm out of his grasp, only to still when three sharp blades were raised to his throat.

"Your fear holds you back."

In the light coming from the exit behind Shredder, movement caught Leo's attention. The shadow formed into a slender, metal clad shape, glowing eyes staring him down like judgement. "Karai?!" He gasped.

The Shredder tightened his hold on the cloth. "But no longer." He made a sharp movement, and the claws on his gauntlet scratched his skin as the pressure on his neck lifted. When the hand pulled back, Leo saw the torn, blue fabric of his bandana hanging limply from the Shredder's metal gauntlet. "It is good that you care so much for my daughter… for you will soon be spending a lot of time with her clan." He let the fabric fall from his hand, and Leo's eyes followed it until a solid fist slammed into the back of his head.

* * *

The hum of computers rose painfully in his ears and it felt as though his brain was being pulled through a grinder as he slowly tried to pull his thoughts together. Where was he? He had been with his brothers. But somehow, he knew that none of them were here with him. Where were they? Why was he alone?

"He'szz waking up." He heard a familiar buzzing voice, and clacking of machinery. "It would have been easzzier if he didn't. Oh well."

The blurry outline of Stockman came into view, the fly-man leaning over a panel. For a moment nothing made sense, but a mechanical sound made him look up, and his eyes widened in dread. The descending head-piece had a disgusting worm-like creature attached to the side, and suddenly the situation made too much sense. He tried to move, but found that he had been strapped to a metal table.

The restraints bit into his flesh as he struggled to break free; the head-cover lowered, and he couldn't help but wonder if Karai had been just as scared when this happened to her; if Raph had been. He had never asked; had never wanted to know.

The piece surrounded his head, and there was the sound of something wet, a presence beside his head, then – pain.

It started by his left ear, but he gasped as it quickly spread throughout his skull and set the rest of his body on fire. His brain was being burned and ripped away, slice by slice, and he was only dimly aware that the screams echoing throughout the room belonged to him. His last thoughts were of his family, who would wake up to find him missing without an explanation. Then, that was gone, as well.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

I originally planned for this to be an alternate path to what happened in the episode with the mega shredder – rather, what would have happened if Mikey didn't go with him. I suppose the story took its own life, and I've been working on and off on it for the past two years - which is really too long, so I figure that starting to publish the chapters should help me finish this story up ;)

Reviews and comments are always appreciated!


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